2014 Thurston Today

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Contents

A Message from the Director

Dear Friends, Happy New Year! The holiday season was a wonderful one, and as 2015 kicks into high gear, we are reminded of all we were thankful for last year and at the top of our list is you. Thank you for supporting us as volunteers, as donors and with words of encouragement. We are grateful to you for all you have done for us as this has encouraged us to work harder to give back to the community. I also want to take this opportunity to say thank you to our 100+ donors, 17 of which were faculty and staff! Faculty and staff are denoted with an asterisk in the Donor Honor Roll.

We had a busy and exciting 2014!Here are a few things that are highlighted in this edition of Thurston Today:

TARC's selection as the new home for the Osteoarthritis Action Alliance (OAAA);

The establishment of a new UNC Rheumatology Lupus Specialty Clinic;

Expansion of our clinical trials research programs;

Recent honors and awards and new scientific results presented in journals and at meetings;

We have welcomed many new faces in our Division and Center since the last newsletter, including new faculty, research and administrative staff, as well as students. Photos, short bios and areas of interest are included for each individual in our New Faces section of Thurston Today.

Finally, we say farewell and express our best wishes and gratitude to Dr. Mary Anne Dooley, Associate Professor of Medicine, who retired this spring after 23 years of devoted service to our patients, our referring physicians, the School of Medicine, and the people of North Carolina.

We hope you are still enjoying the electronic format of Thurston Today, and please explore our website further once you¹ve linked to it through the various articles and stories. You can contact us at any time to provide feedback and how we can further improve.

All of us at UNC's Thurston Arthritis Research Center and Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology hope you have a delightful 2015!

TARC News

The Thurston Arthritis Research Center and Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology are pleased to announce the completion of our five-year strategic plan. We look forward to championing initiatives in our focus areas of clinical care, epidemiological research, basic and translational research, education, clinical trials and marketing and development.

Dr. Mary Anne Dooley, Associate Professor of Medicine, is retiring from the UNC Health Care System at the end of February after 23 years of devoted service to our patients, our referring physicians, the UNC School of Medicine, and the people of North Carolina.

Allergy/Immunology clinic nurse retiresPhyllis Cameron retired this month after 21 years at UNC, 12 of which were spent as the head nurse in our Allergy/Immunology clinic. She will be dearly missed by everyone at our clinic.

Dr. Leigh Callahan has received a one-year grant from the Arthritis Foundation to evaluate "Camine Con Gusto," the Hispanic version of Walk With Ease program, among 200 Hispanic adults with self-reported arthritis or joint pain.

Welcome one of the newest members of the TARC family!Dr. Jennifer Rogers and her husband were blessed with a beautiful, healthy baby girl. Mom, dad and baby are doing well.

NC Lupus Summit recap The 14th Annual NC Lupus Summit was held at the Raleigh Marriott Crabtree Valley on Saturday, October 25, 2014. Patients, caregivers, and the medical community were invited for a day devoted to those affected by lupus.

Currently in OA Action Alliance NewsIn 2011, the Arthritis Foundation (AF) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) mobilized a multitude of stakeholders, concerned about arthritis, to form the OA Action Alliance (OAAA). In 2014, management of OAAA activities transferred from the AF to the Thurston Arthritis Research Center (TARC) at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

Rich Lotstein received the Employee Forum Peer Recognition Award. The Employee Forum seeks to continually improve the quality of life at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for its students, faculty, and employees through mutual understanding, recognition of employee contributions, and respect for the worth of the individual.

Recent Research Publications and Presentations

In 2014, 15 individuals at TARC and RAI were authors or co-authors on 80 publications in numerous medical journals. Here are just a few to demonstrate the broad range of research interests of our faculty and fellows.Click here for a more complete listing

Dr. Dore selected to present his research at the 2014 American College of Rheumatology Research WorkshopDr. Dore was selected to present his research study “The Relationship between Lower Limb Osteoarthritis Burden and Risk for Falls: The Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project” at the 2014 American College of Rheumatology Research Workshop in Seattle, Washington in June. This course is a two- day workshop designed to promote interactions between young and established investigators to foster collaboration and career mentoring.

New Faces

During his 15 years as a data analyst John Cantrell (MA) has performed data extraction, transformation, and analysis. He is particularly interest in the use of tables and graphics to effectively present analysis results and in the appropriate application of statistical methods. He is currently a master’s student in the UNC department of Biostatistics. Mr. Cantrell is familiar with a number of different technological tools, including Sybase, Oracle, MS Access/Visual Basic, ArcGIS, STATA, and SAS. SAS is his strongest skill, including data step programming, by group processing, SAS MACRO language, SAS/STAT, SAS Access and pass-through SQL. He has worked with clinical trials data, clinical exam data, geographic data, census data, Medicaid and Medicare claims data, public health surveillance data, motion analysis data, and survey data, supporting clinical trials, preventive care though population health management, and public health. His work in public health includes dental public health, injury prevention, and research on arthritis.

Rebekah “Beka” Layton earned her Ph.D. (Social and Personality Psychology, 2014) and M.A. (Psychology, 2011) from the University at Albany, State University of New York, and her B.A. (Psychology and History & Sociology of Science, 2005) from the University of Pennsylvania. Rebekah is also a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom where she served as a Military Police Officer in Baghdad, Iraq. As a paratrooper, she was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and completed her active duty service in Seoul, Korea as a Captain in the US Army. Perhaps not surprisingly, her research focus is in self-control and goal-setting, with additional research interests in physical fitness activity, emotion, and mindfulness. Rebekah is thrilled to join the PALS team, led by Christine Rini, here at UNC Chapel Hill. She is joined by her husband Seth, daughter Ariya, cat Sonic, and dog Lola. Rebekah loves to row (crew) and sing in her free time, and is (not so secretly) obsessed with all things Broadway. She originally hails from Rensselaerville, NY, where she grew up in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains, and accordingly also loves hiking (along with pretty much anything to do with the outdoors).

Marjorie Margolis is a graduate research assistant on the Partners in Active Living (PALs) study and is a first year MSPH-PHD student in Health Behavior in the Gillins School of Public Health. She previously worked in health communication research at a nonprofit research institute in RTP. In her free time, she enjoys running, cooking, and baking.

Daniel Newell was raised in Chapel Hill, and graduated from Chapel Hill high school. He went on to get a B.S in psychology at Appalachian State University. After graduation he wanted to see more of the world, and decided to teach English at a South Korean public school. After spending over a year in Korea and traveling around South East Asia, he returned to Chapel Hill and worked as a research assistant for the Carolina Affective Science Laboratory, and The Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Lab at UNC. His experiences working on behavioral interventions at the P.E.P lab piqued my interest in public health issues and health behavior. He is looking forward to working with and learning from the outstanding range of faculty and staff on the PALS project!

Quinn Williams earned a master’s degree in Social Work at UNC-Chapel Hill. Quinn is a project manager at UNC who has managed complex randomized clinical trials, she has a special interest in behavioral health studies. Quinn currently works with Dr. Kelli Allen on the PATH-IN study, a clinical trial comparing an internet based exercise program to physical therapy for patients with knee osteoarthritis.

Loeser Lab

John Collins, PhD received his BSc (Hons) in Sport and Exercise Science from Nottingham Trent University in 2007 and his MMEDSCI in Human Nutrition from the University of Sheffield in 2009. He received his PhD in Musculoskeletal Biology from the University of Liverpool in 2013. Key research interests include chondrocyte redox signaling in osteoarthritis and mitochondrial function in health and disease. He has recently started as a postdoctoral fellow for Dr. Loeser and is looking forward to working alongside everyone at TARC.

Meredith Greene is a fourth year graduate student in the Molecular Medicine and Translational Science program at Wake Forest University and has been working in Dr. Richard Loeser’s lab since January of 2011. She graduated from Campbell University in 2010 with a BS in Biochemistry.

Kathryn Kelley

Scott Wood, PhD received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Tech University in 2005 and his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Clemson University in 2011. His areas of interest include integrin signaling, redox signaling, and mechanotransduction mechanisms of chondrocytes in OA. He has been working as a postdoctoral fellow for Dr. Loeser for almost two years and is excited to be part of the TARC team.

Mary (Yiwen) Zhao is a Research Technician in the Loeser lab.

Liu Lab

Kathryn Pietrosimone is a postdoctoral research associate in the lab of Peng Liu. She graduated with a B.A. in biotechnology and molecular genetics from Assumption College in Worcester, MA. She then moved on to the University of Connecticut where she received her PhD in molecular and cell biology. During her graduate work Kathryn focused on the study of immune cell movement in response to bacterial infections. She is currently studying the recruitment and involvement of immune cell subsets in animal model of rheumatoid arthritis.

Brad Poston, BS, is a research technician in Dr. Liu's lab and a recent graduate of NC State University. He is interested in studying autoimmunity and is an aspiring physician that hopes to specialize in Rheumatology & Immunology.

Su Lab

Pearl Vijay Bakhru

Former staff

Amy Glekas, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow who recently received her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where she worked on the effects of abiotic stresses on plant genetics. She is enjoying the challenge of changing research fields and is thrilled to be working on rheumatoid arthritis in Dr. Liu’s laboratory. "Living in North Carolina has been a joy, and I have already decided that I never want to leave!"

Jamie Stiller worked with Drs. Amanda Nelson and Yvonne Golightly as a Research Associate funded in part by our UNC Junior Faculty Development Award. She provided research support for osteoarthritis grants focused on hip shape morphology and leg length inequality. Jamie earned her Master of Public Health degree with a concentration in Health Behavior in 2010 from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and was recently accepted to UNC’s Master of Science in Occupational Therapy program. She started her master's program this fall and we wish her much success.

Amanda Wohlfarth joined us as a temporary part-time accounting technician. She holds a full-time position as an accounting technician for NC Botanical Garden and graduated in 2012 from UNC-Wilmington with majors in Film and English. After graduation, Amanda has held positions in web development and film editing before moving to Chapel Hill. We appreciated Amanda's temporary assistance and wish her the best.

Please join us in welcoming all of our new faces to the Division and Center!

~ The faculty and staff of the Thurston Arthritis Research Center

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Donor Honor Roll

The 2013-2014 Honor Roll of Giving recognizes gifts received in fiscal year July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014.

We value each donor and do our best to ensure that each person is correctly noted. If you notice your name was omitted or misspelled, please accept our apologies and contact our Director of Development, Jennifer Bullard at jennifer_bullard@unc.edu or 919.843.5398.

Awareness programs

AF Walk to Cure ArthritisFriends, thank you all for the wonderful participation we had for the AF Walk to Cure Arthritis on May 10th. With about 60 people, our TARC Heels team raised $3,830, almost 4x our goal! And, the AF raised almost twice what they have in years past.

We are frequently direct beneficiaries of this fundraising, as many of our graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and junior faculty get their starts in research with AF funding.

Put On Purple Day Our faculty & staff participated in Put On Purple Day by wearing purple on May 16! This is a special day when local communities rally to bring greater attention to lupus by wearing purple and telling others why they support people affected by lupus.